“View of Rome from Monte Mario” is exhibited in the Russian Art Hall at the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts. Vasily Egorovich Raev created this copy of his own painting with the same name at the request of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Vasily Raev is one of the few Russian artists of serf origin. He was born in 1808 in the village of Volok, Kholmsky Uyezd, Pskov Governorate. In 1829, the landowner I.A. Kushelev sent the talented young artist to the Arzamas School of Painting of Academician Alexander Vasilyevich Stupin — Russia’s first provincial private art school for serfs.

In 1834, after graduating from school, Vasily Raev went to St. Petersburg. However, he could not be accepted into the Academy of Arts. Pavel Nikolayevich Demidov, a philanthropist and representative of the famous Ural dynasty, decided to buy out the artist and invited him to Nizhny Tagil to paint views of factories from life. These paintings were shown at the Academy of Arts and highly appreciated. This happened only five years after Raev’s graduation from school. In 1839, at the age of 31, Vasily Raev finally became a free person. In 1842, he went to study in Italy at the expense of Count Vasily Alekseyevich Perovsky.

In 1845, Vasily Raev informed the Academy of Arts that he had completed the commissioned painting “View of Rome from Monte Mario”. It is with great precision that he captured the view of the city and its surroundings from the area’s highest point — Monte Mario. The painting fully met the requirements of the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1851, Vasily Raev was awarded the title of academician of landscape painting for his services and for that particular work which is nowadays kept in the State Russian Museum. Later, he created several copies of the painting.

It is likely that this copy was created in Moscow and presented by Vasily Raev to the patron of arts Kozma Terentyevich Soldatyonkov who kept it until 1901. After the owner’s death, according to his will, the collection was donated to the Moscow Rumyantsev Museum. After the museum was disbanded in 1924, the painting was transferred to the State Museum Fund. A year later, it was transferred to the Nizhny Tagil Local History Museum, and in 1959 — to the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts.